Chapter 273: Infiltrating the Obelisk Facility

They'd made plans to wake him at the appropriate time, but Kai woke in the darkness, strangely alert. It wasn't yet time for their attack, so he had a moment to reflect.

Ideally he would have wanted another week to practice with his stealth skill, or a whole month to find better monster essence. Hell, while he was at it he wanted a decade to become strong enough to fight everyone in his path. All he had was his current strength, so he made sure Mutefang's Stealth was ready, swapped Tyrant's Claw for Void Gaze, and then finally rose.

Monstrous Hunger - XI (lambda)

Behemoth's Heart - VII (eta)

Direboar's Strength - XI (lambda)

Isulfr's Bite - VII (eta)

Void Gaze - VI (zeta)

Mutefang's Stealth - V (epsilon)

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They were awake, of course, and waiting for him. But at this point there wasn't much to say.

"We'll be around north," Omilaena told him. "If you get there by any means, we'll extract you."

"Good luck," Zae Zin Nim said.

He nodded to them both and then walked into the shadows of the forest.

All trees had been cleared around the obelisk facility, but he'd take any cover he could get. At least now when he moved through the forest he did so perfectly silently, half due to experience and half due to his new stealth. By the time he reached the edge of the forest and looked out toward the wall, he was fairly sure he couldn't have been detected.

Now the challenge they couldn't test or train for: Kai took a deep breath and then sprinted out of cover. He kept low to the ground and tried to wrap himself in monstrous essence, but there was nothing else he could do.

When he reached the wall he still hadn't heard any alarms or shouts of intruders. There were guards atop several towers, the lights of their lanterns obvious and their spiritual senses clumsy by his standards. Next he needed to get over the wall, without touching it... when Kai saw enough attention turn away, he took the wall in a single leap.

It was there, in an empty office, that he made his worst mistake. All of his training had been in the forest, so it was all too easy to accidentally brush against a quill sticking away from one desk. He turned back and saw it tip over, the ink pot tumbling toward the floor outside his reach...

And froze in place as he activated Void Gaze.

Kai didn't dare breathe. He refused to allow himself to blink as he stepped back and took the frozen ink pot and quill out of the air. There was no way of knowing exactly what angle it had been sitting at, but he put it back as best he could and moved on more cautiously.

Finally he found what they needed: information about shipments. It sounded like the obelisks were all being taken to two different locations. Some to the northern border, which made sense, but others to a city called Traeton - right, the Commonwealth capital. As far as he knew there weren't a meaningful number of elves in Traeton, so the action seemed senseless unless it was paranoia.

Part of him was tempted to just take as much as possible and shove it all in his spatial ring, since others might be able to learn more. Kai reminded himself that would only invalidate so much of the intelligence he'd gained and finally crept out. Time to leave.

When he stepped out the door, Kai felt a presence overhead.

He froze again, realizing that the demon was standing on the roof of the office. For several long seconds he didn't breathe, tried not to exist at all, and eventually she leapt away to the roof of the main facility. That would give her a good vantage point of all the spaces between other buildings, so Kai dove for cover. Once on the other side of some supplies, he crept between them and the wall, toward the northern side.

They must not know he was there for sure, because the guards were still following their usual patterns. But the demon was prowling strangely, more alert than before. He needed to get out now, because discovery was becoming inevitable.

Just as he was waiting for his moment, chakra pulsed from the demon. He could see the purple ripple flowing over all the buildings, across the ground, toward him...

Kai leapt over the wall. He passed in darkness, and for a moment he thought he'd made it, then he felt one of his feet grow very cold.

When Kai landed he stared in horror: the foot he'd leapt off with was coated in purple chakra.

"Intruders!" The demon's voice thundered through the night. "Spread out!"

Kai sprinted to the nearest trees, so close to the point he needed to escape and yet so far. Worse, the chakra was still attached to his foot, growing heavier and colder. When he tried to brush it off, it was ineffective, and when he threw off his boot the chakra was bound to his skin as well.

The demon had marked him. If she didn't already know where he was, she probably would soon.

Kai bent down and tried to use his hunger to consume the chakra somehow, but it was a technique and not so easily destroyed. He could feel it throbbing now, and the chakra was spreading, and there was an answering throbbing... as he stared at his foot, Kai realized that he had one choice left and opened his jaws wide.